1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote controller capable of selectively controlling a plurality of electric appliances, remote control system and method thereof. More particularly, this invention relates to a remote controller, remote control system and method thereof for transmitting a wireless signal corresponding to an identification code to a plurality of electric appliances to lock the electric appliance corresponding to the identification code, and for transmitting a wireless signal corresponding to a function instruction to a plurality of electric appliances to control the locked appliance to execute the function instruction of the remote controller, remote control system and method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A remote controller has become part of our daily life and it has become an essential electric appliance. A user can select television channels or control an air conditioner through the remote controller without needing to move around. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 refers to a functional block diagram of a conventional remote controller 10. The remote controller 10 comprises an input interface 12, comprising a plurality of keys for selecting functions corresponding to the key; a control module 14, coupled to the input interface 12, and an infrared light-emitting diode (infrared LED) 16, coupled to the control module 14. The user is able to select the function corresponding to the key, and the input interface 12 is capable of transmitting an input signal corresponding to the key to the control module 14. The control module 14 is capable of controlling the infrared LED 16 to output an infrared signal to an electric appliance by transmitting a control signal corresponding to the input signal to the infrared LED, much like a Morse code. After the electric appliance receives the infrared signal, the infrared signal will be decoded, and the corresponding function such as adjusting volume or image settings is then executed.
When the infrared LED 16 outputs an infrared signal, the infrared signal includes the corresponding function code of the function, a machine identification code which is positioned before the function code, for identifying which appliance will be controlled, and an ending code positioned after the function code to separate continuous signals. In the above-mentioned, the conventional remote controller 10 is capable of controlling a certain model of an electric appliance. However, if the user utilizes the remote controller 10 to control one of the electric appliances and there are other electric appliances of the same model within the signal range of the remote controller 10, then the rest of the electric appliances will also receive the infrared signal transmitted by the remote controller 10 and will perform the same function. The unintentional control of appliances results in an error and causes inconvenience to the user. Therefore, to avoid this error each infrared signal transmitted will include the machine identification code, the function code, and the ending code. This is an added complication in control command and also causes a delay in decoding the infrared signal; hence this causes a delay in the reaction time for the electric appliance to perform the command of the remote controller 10.